University of Virginia Library

HYMN 60. (L. M.) The Truth of God the Promiser; or, the Promises are our Security.

I

Praise, everlasting praise be paid
To him that earth's foundations laid;
Praise to the God whose strong decrees
Sway the creation as he please.

II

Praise to the goodness of the Lord
Who rules his people by his word,
And there as strong as his decrees
He sets his kindest promises.

III

Firm are the words his prophets give,
Sweet words on which his children live;
Each of them is the voice of God,
Who spoke and spread the skies abroad.

IV

Each of them powerful as that sound
That bid the new-made heavens go round;
And stronger than the solid poles
On which the wheel of nature rolls.

V

Whence then should doubts and fears arise?
Why trickling sorrows drown our eyes?
Slowly, alas, our mind receives
The comforts that our Maker gives.

VI

O for a strong a lasting faith,
To credit what th'Almighty saith!
T'embrace the message of his Son,
And call the joys of heaven our own.

VII

Then should the earth's old pillars shake,
And all the wheels of nature break,
Our steady souls should fear no more
Than solid rocks when billows roar.

VIII

Our everlasting hopes arise
Above the ruinable skies,
Where the eternal Builder reigns,
And his own courts his power sustains.